


Hospital Beds

by QueenoftheHobbits



Series: If We Had More Time [1]
Category: Wonder Woman (2017)
Genre: F/M, if we had more time, wondertrev
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-02
Updated: 2017-07-02
Packaged: 2018-11-22 09:13:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11377122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenoftheHobbits/pseuds/QueenoftheHobbits
Summary: Steve is alive and while they're both surprised neither of them care. They have more time now.





	Hospital Beds

She did not question it. Could not question it when they told her he was alive. When Charlie rushed to her side one day after the war and yelled it so loudly that half of the world would surely have heard. Half of London at least. Part of her wondered if ‘he’s been found’ meant his body, but part of her still hoped. The part that longed for him each day, as she slept in his apartment, unsure of where else she could go.

The truth was that she had no strength to question what had to be a gift. Her mother had said the Gods were dead, but surely a few must still exist if he was brought back to her. How else would he still be here after the plane? How else?

Perhaps love was the answer or perhaps it was simply that he was an above average man always meant to defy odds that no one else could. To find her. To save lives. To live when he would surely die.

And so she found herself stood with Etta, sweet and faithful Etta, outside a cold looking building. Scared. Terrified of seeing him. Of seeing him again only to lose him again. Or to see him and see him weak and fragile rather than his usual strong willed self. From the moment she had dragged him from the water he had made an impression on her and she was scared to see him broken down.

She focused on the bricks, the cracking mortar, the lead drain pipes. On the little details to detract from her fear. A God and yet she was just as fallible, just as human in so many ways. She felt everything they felt. She hurt in her heart and in her mind. In many ways she was them, simply stronger.

“We should go in, dear…he’ll want to see us, probably already has a list of things for me to do!” It was an attempt at humour one that failed to be funny but also failed to hide Etta’s own fears and concerns for her and employer and friend. It was obvious that Etta and Steve were close, like family. She was barely herself when they all thought he was dead, she focused all her attention on Diana on helping her fit in and survive in a post war world that she didn’t know.

She was forever grateful for Etta and her help and friendship.

Diana grabbed Etta’s hand, squeezing it, in part to comfort her friend and in part to give herself strength. To see that man she had so quickly fallen in love with in a state she was sure she would not like that would hurt her.

“You’re right. We should…see him.” Etta must have seen the fear on her face for she gave her a smile that reminded her of her mother. A strong, mothering kind of look. The one that had its own unique strength to it. One she may never see from her own mother again.

The building is just as cold and stark inside. White walls and a child that creept through the corridors. Military hospitals in Britain were make-shift and make-do, they were not places of warmth even if the people in them tried their best to make them so. Diana wondered what it must be like to care for so many men, so many wounded and hurt, some dying…she imagined it to be one of the hardest things in the world. To go home and be unable to forget their faces and their cries.

She let Etta lead her through, stopping a nurse to ask where they would find him only to see Samir, Charlie, and the Chief outside a room. The biggest indicator of who was inside. Of the person whom she longed to see and yet was scared to see.

“He’s inside, lass…” Charlie looked mollified by Steve being there and yet there was something that said he wasn’t quite happy. That Steve wasn’t exactly as he wished he was.

Etta turned to her, patting her cheek and fiddling with her collar. “I’ll let you go in first, he can wait before he gives me more chores.” Etta’s smile is tight and so obviously fake, but it is still reassuring. Reassuring to see other people struggling and yet still trying their best to hold it together against all odds.

He had been given his own room, not the long wards like the others…she was not sure if that was because he was a Captain or because he had been hurt so badly. How anyone could survive an exploding plane she wasn’t sure. She supposed perhaps he jumped from it, perhaps he had decided that he would not die that day. Part of her hoped his decision was because of his confession that he had decided he deserved more time with her. But whatever reason led to him still being here today she would be grateful, grateful that he was still alive in any sense.

She stood outside the door for as long as she could, the others watching her but knowing why she hesitated. They simply let her stand there, let her stare and waited for her to be ready. To find that Themysciran strength to face what she was scared of. A deep breath, closed eyes and a reminder that he was alive. That they had more time.

She was moving towards the door, gently pushing it open, so hyperaware of her strength in a hospital filled with people so vulnerable. The first thing she saw was the tiled floor, her boots contrastingly dark and coloured against it. Her gaze struggled upwards the fear of seeing him in whatever state making her hesitate. But when she saw him the breath left her lungs and she felt herself relaxing.

He was battered that was certain, wrapped in gauze, burns over his skin, and laboured breathing, but he was Steve and he was most certainly alive. Fragile. Fragile enough to make her walk lightly, and sit so delicately in the chair out of fear that somehow her too heavy footsteps would hurt him.

He was asleep, but his breathing was so heavy, so loud. It was obvious he found it hard to breathe. It hurt to see him struggle. Her hand reaching out to carefully push hair from his face, delicately brushing against his cheek. He was warm. He was breathing. He was alive.

She found herself crying then, hand gripping his, forehead pressed against the starchy covers of his hospital bed. He was alive. Alive. She had never felt pain the way she had when she watched that plane explode, never felt the pure agony of having someone so new, someone who had not had enough time with you ripped from you. It was different from losing a person she had known her whole life. It was the regret that they did not have more time. That he did not know how she felt that hurt her so much.

She felt the hand slip from her grasp, and lightly press against her back, soothing and gentle. Diana lifted her head to see him awake, a small smile tugging at his lips, those blue eyes soft and watching. Part of her wanted to grab him and never let go, but she could see the pain that covered his body, the wince and even moving his hand. So instead she settled for wiping her tears away and smiling at him. Smiling because he was alive.

“Hey.” It was so obvious that he wasn’t sure what to say. That being alive was not something he expected. Perhaps it was a gift from the Gods after all or perhaps the world simply wasn’t done with him yet.

She could feel that bubbling of words in her throat, the overwhelming relief at him being alive and awake and the pure affection at seeing him again. At being able to be around him again. It all rose forth from her chest to her throat to her mouth, “I love you.”

He had said it to her and she had failed to say it back, failed to hear it before it was too late. But this time. This time she would say it before he was gone, she would remind him how much she cared, how much she desired him, how much she wished to make a life, however, brief with him. Even knowing that one day he would die again and she would still be the same…even knowing that she wanted to spend as much time with him as possible because losing him before his time was the hardest thing she’d ever had to deal with.

“Wow…” She can already hear it ‘neat’, ‘cool’. His awkward vocabulary at being told he was loved in return. It was part of what she loved so dearly about him. While he could be ‘suave’ and confident there were times, mostly around herself, where he was fumbling and awkward. Adorable. She loved knowing that she had such an impact on him.

She felt blind panic for a moment when he winced, struggling to sit up in his bed. She tried to help him, so afraid of hurting him more. A hand brushing against his cheek, smoothing the lines on his forehead, “You’re not leaving me again, are you?”

“Not for a long while.” She believed him. Because he believed it himself. God, Steve didn’t know how he was still alive. How he survived it, but he was grateful, grateful that she was there before him still as magnificent as ever.

He was grateful that she loved him and grateful that they had time and just so goddamn grateful that after everything they went through, after the war, after all the shit he saw, she’s here and they might get to have something beautiful.

She sat with him for hours, talking and listening, but mostly watching. Watching over him as he slept and watching the nurses and doctors tend to him. She was worried that if she left he would disappear, so she stayed despite the insistence of everyone around her that she go. She stayed.

One day soon she would take him home, to his home and she would see to him until he was himself, until he was in full health because they had more time now. They had so much more time and she didn’t want him to leave her sight.


End file.
